Currently, a considerable number of people are suffering from nasal obstruction disease (also known as rhinobyon). The narrowest part of the nasal cavity of the human body is the nasal valve area (intranasal hole). This nasal valve area is located in the deep part of the nasal vestibule and in front of the front-end of the inferior nasal concha. It is a long and narrow triangular region and is a part where the greatest nasal resistance exists. The nasal obstruction normally occurs in the nasal valve area and the front-end of the inferior nasal concha adjacent to the nasal valve area. Normally, the nasal obstruction is caused by the structural abnormalities, such as mucosa swelling, hyperplasia, hypertrophy, the nasal septum deviating, and the like. The nasal obstruction can cause breathing disorder, snoring and other symptoms.
The chronic and severe nasal passage obstructive symptoms described above are usually treated by surgery. However, the cost of the operation is usually high and cannot fundamentally cure the deformation of the nasal passage. Moreover, the removal of turbinate can cause “empty nose syndrome” and other sequelae, which will bring more pain to the patients.
Another solution to treat the nasal obstruction is using a nasal dilator. The vent ability of the nasal passages is improved by dilating the space of the nasal passages. An international patent application PCT/CN2013/085002 disclosed a nasal dilator. The nasal dilator includes two irregular annular intranasal stents and a U-shape connecting device. When the nasal dilator is arranged in the deep part of the nasal vestibule, the two irregular annular stents support and dilate the inner wall of the nasal alar near the nasal valve area (intranasal hole) from the inner side. Thus, the ventilation space of the nasal valve area and the front-end of the turbinate is dilated, thereby relieving the symptoms of nasal obstruction.
The intranasal stent of the existing nasal dilator can be divided into two types, i.e., columnar shape (or annular shape) intranasal stents and band shape intranasal stent. US published application U.S. Pat. No. D575,397 S1 discloses a columnar shape (or annular shape) intranasal stent. The advantage of the columnar shape (or annular shape) intranasal stent is its good expansion ability. The disadvantage of the columnar shape (or annular shape) intranasal stent is high air resistance and low adaptability to the nares of different shapes. The advantages of the band-shaped intranasal stent are comfortablity and high adaptability to the nares of different shapes. The disadvantage of the band-shaped intranasal stent is that the expansion strength in the two ends of the intranasal stent is insufficient.